The Backbone Alphabet

About the Book

The Backbone Alphabet is a combination of graphics, poetry, philosophy, history, optical illusions, and puzzle games. This work uses: —the opening poem “Seraph Sans Serif” to set a theme of the history of paradigm shifts in print, religion, and perception of reality; —the alphabet to show a historical progression of religion and philosophy from the beginning of the written word to postmodernism and the end of print; —poetry, graphics, and optical illusions in a way that makes philosophical themes fun; —the alphabet to show a historical progression of fonts and icons; —a progression of primary colors through black and white to represent the past and present; —the concluding poem “Mimicry” to imply that we are on the cusp of a new age for print; —and a separate booklet, Artist’s Code, for those who would like to see how their interpretations compare with the author’s intentions.

About the Author

Martin Settle is a poet and assemblage artist, who resides in Charlotte, North Carolina. He has master’s degrees in English and communications and has taught for thirty-two years, the last seventeen of which were at UNC Charlotte. At UNC Charlotte, he taught courses in composition, creative writing, literary analysis, and technical writing. In 2015, Main Street Rag published his book of poetry The Teleology of Dunes; in 2016, his second book came out, Coming to Attention: Developing the Habit of Haiku (Main Street Rag). Also, in 2016, Mr. Settle won the Poetry of Courage Award (North Carolina Poetry Society), the Nazim Hikmet Award, and the Griffin-Farlow Haiku Award.